Mobility and transport

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Regulation on train drivers’ certification

Summary
Evaluation
Commission Proposal
Legal Act
Implementation

Overall state of play:

Evaluation – finalised: SWD(2020)137, 14/07/2020
Commission Proposal – on-going: to be adopted by the Commission in 2023

State of play, main conclusions, outlook

Directive 2007/59/EC on the certification of train drivers (“the Directive”) aimed to enhance and facilitate the mobility of train drivers across the rail network of the EU as well as easing, for the employer, the assignment of train drivers to operations in various Member States.

However, the evaluation of the Directive showed that there is significant margin for simplification and further improving the effectiveness of the Directive. In addition, incoherencies in interpreting the Directive have led to diverging standards at national and company levels that limit the mobility of train drivers across Member States and between companies.

Furthermore, after more than 14 years in place, the Directive does not cater for all the new developments that have taken place since its entry into force and that will continue in the coming years, both from a legislative and technological standpoint. This heightens the regulatory burden on all actors involved, contributes to legal uncertainty and prevents the certification framework from benefitting from innovation and digitalisation.

The Commission is therefore working on a revision proposal. This initiative aims to address the identified shortcomings and to ensure that European railways can fully benefit from a new generation of train drivers, who are mobile and digitally-educated, able to carry out smooth operations, including cross-border.

State of Play:

Finalised – SWD(2020)137, 14/07/2020

Scope:

Evaluation of Directive 2007/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on the certification of train drivers operating locomotives and trains on the railway system in the Community

Evaluation findings:

The evaluation showed that the Directive supports the transport policy objectives and continues to be as relevant today as it was 2007. Without action at EU level, the sector would face even more obstacles resulting from the patchwork of different national certification schemes. Hence, the Directive continues to add value at EU level. However, further action at EU level would be needed to fully achieve the objectives.

The evaluation confirmed that the Directive was effective in contributing to enhancing and facilitating the mobility of the train drivers as well as easing, for the employer, the assignment of train drivers to operations in various Member States. The evaluation showed that there is significant margin for further improving the effectiveness of the Directive.

On efficiency, the estimations on costs and benefits made in the Impact Assessment of the Directive could not be verified during the evaluation due to the lack of reliable figures on real costs and benefits. This indicates the need for better data collection in the future.

The Directive is in general terms still coherent with the overarching priorities of EU transport policy but updates are required to increase relevance and efficiency through immediate and undistorted implementation of its requirements underpinning a European transport system.

Estimated savings and benefits

Technological progress (e.g. of ERTMS) on the certification scheme is expected to contribute to more flexibility and simplification of the certification scheme, as well as to efficiency gains (for example by reducing the costs for updating the certification documents).

However, even though no robust evidence with regard to the costs and benefits of the Directive was found by the evaluation, inconsistent implementation by Member States can result in efficiency losses.

State of Play

On-going: to be adopted by the Commission by 2023

Which objective(s) does the Commission pursue?

The general objective is to provide a modern certification regime aligned with the future tasks of train drivers that ensures train drivers’ mobility between Member States, rail operators and networks, while maintaining or increasing the current high levels of rail safety.

In particular, the specific objectives of this initiative are to:

- Define common requirements for the certification and training of train drivers that ensure their mobility across Member States and employers.

- Ensure that the certification documents (license and complementary certificates) are accepted across Member States and employers in order to increase mobility of train drivers.

- Define common training requirements and Set-up of a flexible mechanism to ensure that these requirements can be easily updated to ensure 1) they continue to be fit-for-purpose in the future and that they 2) take advantage of emerging technologies in order for train drivers to be able to make use of future available digital tools for the train operations.